Date Unknown, Location: Mushroom Kings Court, Time since Awakening: Unknown
Not even back to Brenda and Socks and we were already facing something much bigger and much more dangerous than anything we've seen before. This mushroom "king" was bigger than anything we'd seen before and the nasty smirk on the wife or bridesmaid or whatever it was sent chills down my spine. Surrounding us were more mushrooms, of the type we'd been dealing with for more than a day.
The bridesmaid immediately started calling out to the mushrooms, drawing forth monstrous mushroom men, and more disturbing, stepped into the mushroom king. She stepped back out from a pile of mushrooms nearby Seravin. Chicago and I moved to engage the king while Timmy went to fight the mushroom men, and several corpses filled with mushrooms that began marching from the mushroom piles.
Chicago and Timmy were eventually stunned while Nanfoodle went down to more creatures and the bridesmaid, but not before we were all able to kill the mushroom king. Eventually I was able to kill the bridesmaid which also destroyed the corpses, evidently summoned by her. With only a single mushroom man left and everyone but Seravin asleep or unconscious from blood loss I left it to him while I started getting everyone up.
I will say, Nanfoodle is a miracle worker, able to grow berries immediately, each one more refreshing and full of life than the next. Without him we'd still be on the ground in that field. Looking over the 'palace' we found a bunch of rusty arms and armor, as well as 5 stones with sigils and a throwing axe. Practicing with it, we discovered it moved towards whomever it was closest to after being thrown. Then the world went dark.
3 August 1930
I woke in my bed in the orphanage. After panicking for a solid minute the others also woke. Timmy seemed to forget that he was once again the shortest trying to reach for the light switch while the others were figuring out what happened. We heard the sound of sobbing coming from downstairs and investigated, crawling to the peek around the corner.
Mrs. Perry, the owner of the orphanage, was crying into the shoulder of a police officer. Two medics were carrying a corpse away under a red sheet. We ventured downstairs to figure out what exactly was going on and were informed that Bo, the groundskeeper had moved on. Timmy, less than understanding questioned who would want to adopt Bo and why he wasn't adopted yet. As Mrs. Perry tried to explain she did manage to say there were no chores for the day.
Dirk started sneaking off and I followed him on a whim. He told me yesterday when I left the orphanage he and the others found a secret door with a bunch of secret things in it, but Bo was the one with the keys, so we needed to get them before the police did. I showed him my secret way out of the room and down the drainpipe. We got to Bo's place next to the greenhouse and saw a cop still gathering bloody evidence from his room. We managed to distract him with thrown rocks and pull him from the room long enough to nick the keys and flee.
Checking in on the others, Timmy was playing and having fun, something to calm him down after changing so often in the other world. Calvin was trying to talk to squirrels, thinking some of his abilities from the other world passed over. Tobias was looking through books in the library. Dirk and I went into the secret room, taking a scabbard, belt, stone idol, and flag from the chests there. Before bed we stuffed them all under Timmy's 'magic pillow' which had once before allowed him to bring his amulet to the Dream world.
Date unknown, Location: Mysterious Circle, Time since Awakening: 0 hrs
Feeling a ripping and tearing of our souls we all awoke in an enormous field, filled with partially destroyed and uncompleted ritual circles. The only fully complete one was the one we were standing in, apparently made by Brenda, who stated, "Oh good, you're here," before promptly passing out. None of the items traveled with us.
Socks came rushing to our side, raccoon tail waving wildly, and just about exploded from nervous energy. He explained that we had been gone for about a week and that a couple days after we left Magog, now sporting an enormous mushroom mane all down his back, and a number of his bully boys crashed the Romani camp, capturing all of the witches. Only Socks and Brenda were able to escape, and come up with the plan to try and intercept us on our way back to the Dreamlands.
Magog had plans to attempt a birthing ritual in his home base called Fort. It is an enormous square fort with four entrances, built on a hill and with a moat of spikes surrounding it. Ramps lead upwards into Fort and they can be drawn upwards with levers like old drawbridges. The birthing ritual can normally never be held out of season, but Magog thinks with the witches power, and a goblin warlock by the name of Malomie, he'd be able to perform the ritual.
Asking some questions about the things we had seen in the real world or found in this one we discovered the flag in the real world had a symbol called an Elder Sign on it and the stones we found could be used to communicate with other stone wielders up to thrice a day. Useful information. More useful was that the ritual was going down today and Fort was about 4 hours out from this clearing. I felt responsible for leaving the witches alone and accosted everyone until the plan was to go and rescue them. Little niggling thoughts in my head kept saying we could save them, there was still time.
On our way to Fort we heard the sound of massive bits of metal up ahead. We didn't stop. Instead we found a small cruel looking man with an enormous sickle, shiny metal boots, and a bright red hat clonking his way through the forest. We ambushed him, something in our guts telling us he wasn't the talking kind and brought him down without trouble. Timmy kept his boots while Nanfoodle scalped the hat from his head.
When we reached Fort we discovered the nearest bridge was guarded by four hobgoblins while the sounds of ritual chanting and shouting was coming from inside. Chanting was a good thing as Socks explained the ritual was about summoning something called a Dark Young, which was then rushed by 1000 goblins. Each goblin ripped apart by its tentacles or teeth would split into two goblins instead of dying.
Not stopping at the bridge we approached the hobgoblins, asking if we could help the ritual in any way. Said we were Witch handlers, able to stop any sneakiness from going on. Somehow we were convincing so three of the hobgoblins left to go ask the boss if we were allowed inside. I couldn't wait any more and moved to attack, Chicago quickly falling alongside me. Instead of our weapons felling the creature it was Timmy, who got Nanfoodle to hunker down behind the hobgoblin while Timmy pushed it. The result was a set of very messy spikes below the bridge.
Chicago and I, being the fastest started rushing up the ramp to get to the main area, when two other hobgoblins, standing in the watchtowers overlooking this particular bridge pulled a lever, dropping an enormous boulder onto the ramp. Chicago and I dodged with aplomb, being sure not to step on any of the clearly marked 'trap spaces' Magog's boys had been sure to point out. Timmy attempted to stop the boulder with his muscles instead of dodging out of the way, his larger form unable to move quickly to the side.
He was crushed, bleeding on the ramp. It was a wonder he didn't die straight out from the weight, but he managed to survive. When the stone hit the halfway point of the ramp that section dropped twenty feet, making a flat plane for it to continue rolling on and stranding Nanfoodle and Seravin behind us. Luckily someone built ladders to get up to the rest of the ramp, but I had problems of my own to worry about.
Chicago had run around the watchtower and engaged the two bugbears by himself. I chose to climb the side of the tower and arrived just as he engaged. I managed to distract them a bit, though I was punished for it with their enormous mallets. That gave Chicago enough time to follow Timmy's example, using something he called 'ki' to push the two bugbears off the tower to become a gory mess below.
Nanfoodle and Seravin got to Timmy in time to save him, healing him with more berries granted by the gods, or nature, or something. Chicago and I turned to examine Fort behind us.
An enormous amphitheater stuffed to the gills with goblins from every tribe was the sight that greeted us. Each goblin was shouting, chanting, or just writhing in ecstasy as the ritual took place. The three bugbears that went to ask about us were caught up in the crowd, surfing atop the goblins. Some were beating their heads against hard surfaces, others ripping off pieces of their clothes, still others screaming to the heavens. The cacophony was deafening.
Looking down at the center of the pit we could see Magog and his bully boys. Socks was right, the ogre sized goblin was more mushroom than green, at least along his back, and carrying what looked like a full tree to fight with. He had four bully boys surrounding him, each looking outward, ready to fight. Behind them was a large ritual circle, standing before it the goblin warlock Malonie. Surrounding the circle were the empty clothes of the witches I saved what felt like weeks ago. Something still whispered in my brain that they could be saved if the ritual was aborted.
The worst thing though, was the shadow inside the circle itself. It was an oily smoke that continued taking form. There was no rhyme or reason to it, simply many tentacles, and many mouths atop a stumpy trunk of a body. And it was getting more solid with every passing second…
[zombify_post]
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